Who decides if a case warrants an AMBER Alert?
The decision to activate an AMBER Alert is made jointly between local law enforcement and the TBI. The local agency that is handling the case should interview the person who filed the initial missing person report and obtain a detailed description of the missing child, abductor and any vehicle seen. Next, they should verify that the child is missing and determine his or her custody status. Once that is done they can begin identifying the circumstances of the disappearance such as when it occurred and who the child was with when they were last seen. It is up to local law enforcement to then identify the child’s zone of safety for his/her age and developmental stage and make the initial determination whether this was a family abduction, a non-family abduction, an endangered runaway or a lost, injured or otherwise missing child. If, after that preliminary investigation, the case seems to meet the criteria for an AMBER Alert, that local agency will contact the TBI to request an activation.
